PowerUp 3.0 Drone Review

Our Verdict

The PowerUp 3.0 is a fun drone that newspaper aeroplane fans will dear. It's non an all-singing, all-dancing drone, but it is easy and fun to fly.

For

Pocket-sized, light addition to a paper airplane
Piece of cake to use software
Decent speed

Against

Controls are limited
Requires a lot of infinite to fly well
Limited control range

Tom's Guide Verdict

The PowerUp three.0 is a fun drone that paper plane fans will love. It's not an all-singing, all-dancing drone, but it is easy and fun to wing.

Pros

+
Small, light addition to a paper aeroplane
+
Easy to employ software
+
Decent speed

Cons

-
Controls are limited
-
Requires a lot of infinite to fly well
-
Limited control range

When I was a child, we didn't take these fancy electronic drones. Nosotros had proficient, ol' fashioned paper planes. Our fancily folded flight creations sailed across the room, twisting and turning as they went. At present, the world of paper planes and drones are colliding with the $49 PowerUp! iii.0, a remote-control paper airplane.

Yous clip the PowerUp module onto a newspaper plane, connect it to your cellphone, and your paper plane becomes a smartphone-controlled drone that can climb, turn and nothing around the place with surprising speed and grace. Not only does it stir all sorts of nostalgia in me, it is a lot of fun to fly.

Pattern

The active part of the PowerUp Is a small-scale, calorie-free carbon-fiber strip, with a dome at the forepart and a rudder and propeller at the back. Under the clear plastic dome sits all the electronics, including a small bombardment, sensors, controllers and a Bluetooth receiver. A wire sticking out of the top is the Bluetooth antenna, and a tiny switch behind this turns the system on and off. This switch is very small and rather awkward to use: I usually used a pen or paper clip to turn it on or off.

Credit: Richard Baguley — (Image credit: Richard Baguley)

At the other terminate of the strip is a small motor that drives the propeller, and a tiny rudder that steers the plane. The whole thing is very light, weighing just 0.3 ounces. It's congenital to be counterbalanced, so the weight won't tilt the paper aeroplane forward or back.

The paper plane is, of course, the other office of the vehicle. The PowerUp includes four sheets of red newspaper preprinted with instructions for two planes: the Invader and the Nakamura.

MORE: Drone Buying Guide: Everything You lot Demand to Know

The Invader is a beginner's airplane that is stable and easy to fly. The Nakamura is more than maneuverable, but harder to control. At that place is, of form, cypher to stop yous from making your own paper aeroplane and attaching the PowerUp to information technology, but these two newspaper planes provide a adept starting signal. The company's website also includes several downloadable templates that you can print, fold and fly, including an adorable middle-shaped one for Valentine'southward Mean solar day.

Controller

The PowerUp connects to an app by the same name (iOS and Android). Because it uses Bluetooth Smart to connect (a low-ability version of the wireless standard), your device needs to back up this technology. All Apple iPads and iPhones since nearly 2011 have included this, and almost Android phone and tablets since version 4.iii, from 2012.

The unproblematic app features a unmarried throttle command and a virtual horizon, like to the ones used in existent airplanes. The slider command sets the motor speed, and thus the speed and top of the plane. Yous turn the plane left or right by tilting your smartphone in the appropriate management. Dials on the app also bear witness the battery level, the signal strength of the Bluetooth link and the current compass heading.

Equally a full general dominion, if your paper plane flies well on its ain, it will fly well with the PowerUp.

A handful of settings are available to command things similar reversing the rudder control or disabling the flight-assistance feature, which tries to keep the aeroplane flat and level. You tin besides show a weather screen, or enable some faux air-traffic-control sounds for temper. The range of the point volition vary, only I had no problem flying the PowerUp a good l to 60 feet away from the controlling cellphone. If you do wing out of range, the PowerUp will keep going: there is no return to home or other homing feature.

Flying

Flying the PowerUp is a rather odd feel. Your newspaper airplane yet flies similar a normal paper plane, gliding slowly. But, you can make it speed up, climb and turn similar a full-scale RC plane. You lot will need a fairly large amount of space to wing, though: the turning circumvolve of the beginner'due south Invader aeroplane is about 30 feet. So, the living room won't cut information technology, especially equally the controls aren't precise enough to navigate through doorways or windows. You'll also need a still mean solar day: like whatsoever paper airplane, the PowerUp is susceptible to being tossed near past even a slight cakewalk.

You can control thrust and left-correct motion, but you don't go whatsoever direct command over climbing or losing altitude. The thought is that you make the plane climb past adding thrust, which speeds the motor upwards, so slows the motor down when you want the airplane to dive. It nevertheless drifts similar a paper aeroplane, although the extra weight does make it wing a little slower. Achieving a balance between climbing and diving requires some tweaking of the elevators of the newspaper plane. Y'all volition want to find a indicate that allows it to do both while still remaining stable, depending on the thrust.

As a general rule, if your newspaper airplane flies well on its ain, it will fly well with the PowerUp. If the paper plane plunges to earth similar a lead balloon, it volition do the same with the PowerUp attached, just a bit faster.

The amount of turning that the plane tin do varies with the type of plane, but information technology isn't that much on virtually. To execute a total circle typically requires a space of at to the lowest degree 30 feet in diameter and with plenty of open infinite above. Some of the more avant-garde models can turn quicker (and fly slower), simply they are more difficult to fly.

MORE: What the FAA's Drone Rules Could Mean for You

If you are a really advanced flier, the latest version of the PowerUp software allows you to attach two PowerUps to a single plane and control both at the same time for a dual-engine plane that can wing faster and higher.

Repairability

The PowerUp feels a footling fragile, but it handled numerous crashes and hard landings in our tests without incident. The front dome is usually the role that hits the ground first, but it stood up to these crashes with simply some minor scratching. A spare propeller bract is also included, which fits easily onto the motor shaft at the back of the device. A spare parts kit (which includes two rotors, two canopies, two rudders and ii rubber bumpers for the front of the canopy) costs a very reasonable $10.

Battery Life

The PowerUp contains a tiny bombardment inside the front dome, which we found gives about viii-10 minutes of flight time. That'south a little longer than well-nigh cheap drones considering the motor doesn't have to exist constantly working to keep information technology aloft: aerodynamics does that. For instance, the Axis Aerius, our favorite miniature drone, stays aloft for 5 minutes.

The PowerUp can exist recharged by connecting one end of the included micro USB cablevision to the socket on the dorsum of the front dome, and the other to a USB port. Recharging the battery takes about 20 minutes. The bombardment can't be removed or replaced.

Bottom Line

The $49 PowerUp is unproblematic to use and fun to fly. It offers a reasonable amount of control, and with practise, can exist accurately flown. But it isn't a quadcopter drone: y'all can't hover or precisely target it. Forget about hit your nemesis at work across the open-plan role: yous'll be lucky to become close most of the time. Just you lot might, with practice, be able to buzz them like Cary Grant in North by Northwest. And the PowerUp will definitely amuse newspaper airplane fans, equally it offers a new dimension of flying.

More than: The All-time Drones and Quadcopters on Any Upkeep

Richard Baguley has been working equally a engineering science writer and journalist since 1993. As well as contributing to Tom'due south Guide, he writes for Cnet, T3, Wired and many other publications.